We went to Krakow, Poland over Easter. This was our first time visiting Poland (and I doubt the last!). We had a great time and enjoyed very good food. Since we went before and during Easter, the Easter market was in full swing at the main square with handcrafted items and food stalls.

We had great food in a number of excellent restaurants (and at the markets!). I had Polish Sour Rye soup at a few places and it was always fantastic. Naturally we also enjoyed pierogi, oscypek (smoked sheep cheese), bigos, kielbasa and paczki. We did a lot of wandering around old town, enjoying the weather and beautiful old architecture.

We spent time learning more about Poland’s tragic history at Auschwitz, birkenau and schindler’s factory. I learned in school about what happened in Poland but nothing really prepares you to see over 2 tons of human hair that was harvested from human corpses to sell to german factories during the war- this was not the worst thing I learned there.

We took a trip out of Krakow to Zalipie to see the ‘painted village’ which were houses painted with flower designs inside and out. The local church also had some paintings.

The Nowa Huta (New Steel Mill) tour was pretty interesting. Nowa Huta was to be a model city for the socialist ideology, a showpiece for Stalinism. Though it’s just outside Krakow, residents of Nowa Huta (at the time ~1950s) would rarely ever visit the city due in part to the convenience of the newly planned city.

The Wieliczka Salt Mine was a fun trip. It’s a huge mine that is no longer in production but has been open for more than 700 years and produced something like 1/3 of Poland’s GDP. There are many chapels in the mine (because the mine is so large) and a great deal of salt carvings- including chandeliers.